Today's search engine marketing news and opinion: Creative Messaging in a Direct Response World; SEO Basics: Effective Iterative Keyword Research in 2008; Local Advertisers Shifting Dollars to Internet; and more.
Today’s Top Story
 GreggStewart |
Creative Messaging in a Direct Response World VERTICAL SEARCHShould a company focus on building their messaging around their brand image, or on driving direct response via their Web site and online media? Branding and direct response messaging can co-exist online, and local business profile pages are a good place to meld writing techniques for both. » Full story » Print version |
Search Engine Watch Experts Columns
 ChrisBoggs |
SEO Basics: Effective Iterative Keyword Research in 2008 SEM CROSSFIRE The value of any SEO effort lies in the keywords you choose. It’s really that simple — you can’t overestimate the importance of strong keyword research. » Full story » Print version |
 JustilienGaspard |
Link Building Ideas for Local Auto Dealers LINK LOVE The beauty of certain industries — and the challenge — is they’re international, national, and local all at the same time. Such is the case with auto dealers. Here are two link building ideas for a local auto dealer that can be applied to various types of local businesses. » Full story » Print version |
 ErikQualman |
Can Google Predict the Next President? BRAND EQUITY A look at Google Trends comparative data can help guide companies in making strategic decisions. The same can be done in the political world, as McCain and Obama are trying to build up their respective “brands” in the eyes of voters. » Full story » Print version |
News from the Search Engine Watch Blog
| Local Advertisers Shifting Dollars to Internet Posted by Nathania Johnson Jun 27, 2008 This year, local advertisers are expected to shift $13.1 billion of their budgeted funds to the Internet, according to Borrell Associates. The number is up 50% over last year. In 2009, local online ad spending is projected to grow another 40% to $18.2 billion in 2009. By 2012, the growth in … » Continue reading |
| Microsoft to (Finally) Acquire Powerset? Should Someone Tell Icahn? Posted by Nathania Johnson Jun 27, 2008 Microsoft must have been putting on a good poker face a week ago when it said they weren’t looking at any internet-based acquisitions in the wake of failed talks with Yahoo. Venture Beat is now reporting that Microsoft is poised to acquire semantic search company Powerset in the neighborhood of … » Continue reading |
| Google Updates BlackBerry Search Results Pages Posted by Nathania Johnson Jun 27, 2008 Two weeks after launching faster pages for mobile search, Google Mobile is announcing updates to search results pages for BlackBerry devices. Included in the update: Improved Comprehensive Results: Incorporates results from Product Search, Blog Search, News archives search, and more.Blended results: Web, image, local and news results are now combined. But, … » Continue reading |
| Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer spots three key market trends Posted by Greg Jarboe Jun 27, 2008 Geoff Ramsey, the co-founder and CEO of eMarketer, recently shared 0.001% of the information that his team of researchers and analysts knows about Internet market trends during his morning keynote at Electronic Retailerâ””s LiveEdit Lab. Why can I be so precise? He presented 60 slides out of the 54,000 charts available … » Continue reading |
| Google Launches Latin American AdWords Blog Posted by Frank Watson Jun 26, 2008 Multilingual search is one of the growth areas of our industry and Google has added its own help in the space by launching its Latin American AdWords Blog. Written in Spanish, the launch today introduces itself and gives an overview of its intentions and direction. I used a machine translator to … » Continue reading |
| Google Holding Free Webinar On Analytics, Optimizer and Tools Posted by Frank Watson Jun 26, 2008 Set the date aside, July 8th, if you want to get the inside scoop on Google’s website tools. As announced today over at the Official Google Blog, they will be holding a webinar about Google Analytics, Website Optimizer and Webmaster Tools. These Google products have become an invaluable set of tools … » Continue reading |
Search Engine Watch Forum Discussions
| Back to the Basics 2008: Keyword Research Jun 27, 2008 In today’s SEM Crossfire, “SEO Basics: Effective Iterative Keyword Research in 2008 (https://www.searchenginewatch.com/3630065),” I describe many of the methods used by our team to perform keyword research. This Genesis process for all things search engine marketing related has evolved drastically in the last three years since primary dependence on … » Join the discussion |
| QS and ad serving options Jun 26, 2008 I do a lot of ad testing but generally find ads with low CTR generate higher conversion rate and vice versa. Because of this, I have always left my campaigns to rotate ads more evenly under ad serving option. Since one of factors in QS is CTR, does this negatively … » Join the discussion |
| Top Key Phrase Suddenly Fails Jun 26, 2008 A couple of days ago it seems my site was hit with some kind of algorithmic penalty that I can’t figure out. I try to only do white hat SEO. Site is a couple years old, very well ranked for hundreds of keywords. Has ranked on page 1 or 2 of … » Join the discussion |